


Waking Life

by Wreck



Series: 20 fics in 20 days [11]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-18
Updated: 2014-03-18
Packaged: 2018-01-16 04:35:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1332079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wreck/pseuds/Wreck
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When it finally does happen, it’s Arthur that remembers everything first.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Waking Life

**Author's Note:**

> un beta'd. all mistakes are mine.

When it finally does happen, it’s Arthur that remembers everything first. The memories don’t all hit him at once, but they slowly bleed into his life, little by little.

It starts in Arthur’s dreams. He can never remember the details, but the location is always the same: an ancient castle. Sometimes Arthur spends entire dreams roaming the seemingly endless halls. Sometimes he’s in the town, wandering through the marketplace. And every so often he’s in the surrounding woods looking back up at the castle like a beacon.

Arthur chalks this sudden shift in his dream subjects to his recent _Game of Thrones_ marathon, and doesn’t think about it too much. However, when his dreams don’t shift to the American South after watching _True Detective_ a few weeks later, wonders if his subconscious trying to tell him something. He starts to keep a dream journal.

When Arthur meets Gwen he’s in a coffee shop near the university library. He had fully intended to load himself up with caffeine and work on his thesis, but his mind keeps wandering and he finds himself doodling instead of taking notes.

“Do you mind if I sit here?” a soft voice asks and Arthur looks up to see the smiling face a young woman. “Only, everywhere else is taken. I promise not to disturb your work.”

“Oh, sure,” Arthur says, pulling some of his books across the table to make room.

“Oh, that’s wonderful,” Gwen says sitting down and pulling out a few texts of her own. “Are you an artist?”

Arthur furrows his brow but follows her gaze to where he’d been absentmindedly drawing. Instead of a scribble of ink, Arthur finds a fully formed coat of arms, complete with a dragon.

“Just avoiding my real work,” he admits, flushing.

Despite her promise, Gwen and Arthur end up chatting for an hour. She bemoans the physics class she’s meant to be studying for, and Arthur complains about microeconomics. When they part ways to go to their respective classes, they exchange numbers and Gwen insists that Arthur should come to dinner soon and meet her Fiancé, Lance.

That night, Gwen’s face is recognizable amongst the crowds inside the castle.

 

When Arthur graduates, he gets an accounting job with a marketing firm downtown. On his first day, as he’s introduced to the different department heads he’ll be working with, he shakes the hand of Morgana, their artistic director.

In his dreams, though they have never met, Gwen and Morgana are attached at the hip as they roam around the market palace.

A few weeks later a notice is posted in the break room announcing sign up for the company football team and Arthur signs up at once. During the first practice, he meets Leon and Gwaine as they battle for control of the ball, and then later in the pub over pints.

Percy literally runs into Arthur in the hall of his building, while trying to wrestle a couch up three flights up stairs by himself. Arthur offers to help, and then Percy, who is moving into the empty flat across the hall from Arthur, offers some pizza and beer as a thank you.

Arthur gets a call from Gwen and asks if he could put in a good word for her brother at the marketing firm. Elyan comes in for a few interviews and ends up on Leon’s team in sales.

And suddenly Arthur’s dreams are filled with these faces. He watches as their lives play out before him on the stage of his dreams. He watches Lance and Gwen fall in love; watches Gwaine become a knight despite his best efforts; watches Morgana struggle with power she doesn’t know how to control.

Slowly the dreams begin to shift, and they scenery changes. Soon they are in another town, and then another. The faces remain the same, and still he can only watch. Arthur cannot manipulate his dreams, nor can he interact with the subjects. It’s as if he’s watching things that have already happened.

And always he’s alone.

 

The dreams start slipping into his life. He makes a comment about Gwen being allergic to Elderflower only to get a shocked look from her, Lance, and Elyan.

“How could you possibly know that?” she asks.

Arthur shrugs, “You must have mentioned it before?”

Gwaine isn’t sure what to do with himself when Arthur gives him a carved dagger for his birthday. “Fuck off,” Gwaine hisses and then pulls Arthur into a hug. “You know I collect these?”

Arthur looks confused. “Yeah,” he says. “I mean, why else would I have gotten you one?”

And as he stops a gift basket with strawberries from being sent up to Morgana’s office when he happens to be walking by reception as it's delivered, Arthur suddenly realizes he has no idea how he knows Morgana loathes strawberries.

 

Arthur finds himself down by the lake, one Saturday morning, sipping coffee and trying to remember the fading details of that morning’s dream.

It’s when the shadow falls over him, that Arthur realizes that he’s drawn an incredibly detailed sword across the pages of his journal.

“Excalibur,” a voice says, full of wonder.

Arthur scrambles to his feet and finds himself face to face with a stranger. His hair is messy and black, his eyes piercing blue and full of confusion.

“Sorry,” he says. “I just got the strangest––“

But Arthur’s eyes are already widening as he realizes what’s been missing this whole time. “Merlin?” Arthur breathes.

“How did you…” Merlin trails off as Arthur reaches out a hand to touch Merlin’s shoulder.

There’s a flash and then it’s like all the pieces are falling into place. And with them Merlin and Arthur fall into each other’s arms.


End file.
